The typical computing device includes a processor, a display cooperating with the processor for providing a graphical user interface for the user, and an input device for receiving input from the user. The most common input devices are the ubiquitous combination of the keyboard and mouse. Nevertheless, in mobile applications, the keyboard and mouse approach may not be practical due to size constraints. Accordingly, many mobile computing devices include only a keyboard, which is typically miniaturized.
Although the typical miniaturized keyboard does provide a more compact form factor, it may be desirable to remove even a miniaturized physical keyboard in some applications. For example, the space used for the miniaturized physical keyboard could be used to expand the size of the display or to further reduce the size of the device. One approach at replacing the typical miniaturized physical keyboard is the virtual keyboard. In devices including a touch screen display, the virtual keyboard is presented to the user on the screen. The user taps virtual keys on the virtual keyboard to provide input to the device, thereby mimicking the physical keyboard.
The typical virtual keyboard includes multiple keyboard modes, more specifically, a primary mode including letters and the most common punctuation marks, i.e. commas and periods; a numeric mode including numbers and certain special characters; and a symbol mode including any remaining special characters and marks. A potential drawback to this approach may be when the user needs to input a special character or punctuation mark not included in the primary mode. In these instances, the user must switch the keyboard mode to the desired mode for inputting the special character and then back to the primary mode to complete the input. Of course, this may slow down the input process and frustrate the user.
One approach is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0273567 to Milley et al., which discloses a virtual keyboard. This virtual keyboard includes a rotating punctuation mark key. In particular, the key includes a plurality of potential punctuation marks, the assigned punctuation mark is changeable based upon the user pressing a shift key. Accordingly, the user can reassign this punctuation mark key by repetitively pressing the sift button.
Another typical approach is to provide a new interface window separate from the virtual keyboard with a plurality of potential punctuation marks. A drawback to this approach may include reduced display real estate, since the new window is displayed in addition to the virtual keyboard, and reduced ergonomic efficiency since the user must now access another portion of the screen.